Tobacco-stemmer.



No. 788,727. PATENTED MAY 2, 1905.

PM MUNSEY.

TOBACCO STBMMER.

APPLICATION FILED 00T.19,1904.

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Httomegs Mia/w I M WN 1E STATES Patented May 2, 1905.

FRANK MUNSEY, F PERSIA, TENNESSEE.

TOBACCO-STE lVllVl ER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 788,727, dated May 2, 1905.

Application filed October 19, 1904:: Serial No. 229,164.

Z 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK MUNSEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Persia; in the county of Hawkins and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and useful T obacco- Stemmer, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to machines for stripping or stemming tobacco, and has for its ob- Io ject to provide a simple, inexpensive, and officient machine of this character for removing the stems from tobacco-leaves preparatory to their manufacture.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rotary cutter having a reciprocating stripping-knife coacting therewith and operable by the main driving-shaft of the machine.

A further object is to provide means for feeding the tobacco-leaves to the strippingzo knives and means for deflecting the stems into a suitable receptacle beneath the machine.

A still further object is to provide means for rotating the main driving-shaft in areverse direction to thereby permit the sharp- 2 5 ening of the rotary cutters without affecting the stripping-knives.

The invention consists, further, in the construction and novel combination and arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described,

illustrated in the accompanying drawings,

and pointed out in the claims hereto appended, it being understood that various changes in form, proportion, and minordetails of construction may be resorted to without departing from the principle or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

.In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machine constructed in accord- 4 ance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of thesame. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view, and Fig. 4 is a detail perspective view of the reciprocating strippingknives detached.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures of the drawings.

The machine is preferably'mounted on a bench or other suitable base 5, and consists of 5 a pair of uprights or standards 6 and 7, in

which is journaled the main driving-shaft 8. Secured to the end of the shaft 8 is a ratchetwhee19, and loosely mounted on said shaft adjacent the wheel 9 is a master-gear 10, to which is pivoted a spring-pawl 11, adapted to engage the teeth on said ratchet, so that when the shaft is rotated in one direction the gear 10 will turn with the shaft, and when the direction of rotation is reversed the gear .10 will remain idle. Meshing with the gear 0 10 is a pinion 11, secured to an auxiliary shaft 12, the latter being journaled in the standards (3 and 7 and disposed above and in alinement with the main shaft 8. Loosely mounted on the auxiliary shaft 12 is a feed- 5 Wheel 13, which rotates between a pair of spaced rotary cutters 1 1, keyed or otherwise rigidly fastened on the main shaft 8. Attention is here directed to the fact that the hearing of the feed-vvheel 13 is slightly greater in 7 diameter than that of the journal or shaft 12 to thereby allow a limited vertical movement of the feed-wheel and permit the latter to accommodate stems of different thicknesses. Ooacting with the cutters 1 1 is a pair of reciprocating stripping-knives 15, mounted on a rock-shaft 16, which is journaled in uprights 17 disposed at the rear of the machine and preferably secured to the bench or base 5, as shown.

The knives 15 are connected at their rear ends by a spacing-strip 18 and are provided with coincident slots or recesses 19, adapted to receive the shaft 16, said knives being detachably secured to the shaft by a clamping- 5 screw 20, eugaginga threaded opening in the spacing-strip 18. Motion is imparted to the stripping-knives 15 by a verge 21, keyed to the rock-shaft 16 and engaging the laterallyextending pins 22 of an escapement-wheel 23 9 on the end of the auxiliary shaft 12.

It will be observed that the stripping-knives cut or shear in the direction of or parallel with the plane of the leaf and only sever so much of the latter as extends between the cutters 14L, thereby avoiding all inroads into the body of the leaf.

Pivoted on the rock-shaft 16 is a rearwardlyinclined apron 23, adapted to receive the tobacco-leaves and support the same as they are fed rearwardly through the machine. The apron 23 is provided with a longitudinallydisposed slot or recess 24C to accommodate the stripping-knives and cutters, and the forward end of said apron is preferably extended a short distance beyond the cutters 14; and bent or curved downwardly over the latter, as indicated at 25, to form a guard and assist in guiding the leaves to said cutters.

An opening 26 is formed in the bench or base 5, and secured to the latter is a deflector 27, the free end of which is curved over and between the spaced cutters 14, so that as the leaves pass rearwardly over the apron the detached stems will be deflected downwardly through the opening 26 into a suitable receptacle designed to receive the same. As a means for removing any gum orother foreign substance that may adhere to the rotary cutters I provide a scraper 28, one end of which is secured in any suitable manner to the bench, while the opposite end thereof engages the adjacent edges of the cutters, as shown. The machine may be operated by power, in which event a pulley will be secured to the main driving-shaft and connected through the medium of a belt or chain to an engine or other suitable source of power; but I prefer to operate the machine manually and for this purpose have shown a hand-crank 30 on the end of the main driving-shaft.

In practice the tobacco-leaves, being first stretched or otherwise distended, are placed onthe forward end of the apron and feed rear wardly to the stripping-knives, which cut the leaf on each side of the stem, the latter being deflected downward through the opening in the bench, while the leaf, divested of its longitudinal stem, passes out at the rear end of the machine.

When it is desired to sharpen the rotary cutters, it is simply necessary to hold a suitable sharpening device between said cutters and reverse the direction of rotation of the main driving-shaft, the latter being accomplished by means of the pawl-and -ratchet mechanism.

While I have shown a single machine mounted on the bench or base, it is obvious that a plurality of said machines may be secured thereto and operated by a common drivingshaft.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is 1. In a tobacco-strippingmachine, the combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft, a rotary cutter mounted on said shaft, areciprocating stripping-knife coacting with said cutter, and escapement mechanism carried by the main shaft for transmitting motion to said stripping-knife.

2. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft, a pair of spaced rotary cutters mounted on the said shaft, a reciprocating stripping-knife coacting with the cutters, adeflector disposed between said cutters, and escapement mechanism carried by the main shaft for transmitting motion to said stripping-knife.

3. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft, a rotary cutter mounted on the main shaft, an auxiliary shaft, a stripping-knife carried by the auxiliary shaft and coacting with said cutter, and escapement mechanism for transmit ting motion from one shaft to the other.

4.. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of a rotary cutter, a reciproc'ating stripping-knife coacting with said cutter, and escapement mechanism for transmitting motion from the cutter to the stripping-knife.

5. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft, a rotary cutter mounted on the main shaft, an auxiliary shaft, a detachable stripping-knife carried by the auxiliary shaft and coacting with said cutter, and escapement mechanism for transmitting motion from one shaft to the other.

6. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the'combination with a frame, of am'ain driving-shaft, a plurality of rotary cutters mounted in spaced relation on the main shaft, an auxiliary shaft, a stripping-knife carried by the auxiliary shaft and coacting with said cutters, an apron pivoted on the auxiliary shaft, a feed-roller journaled above the rotary cutters, a deflector arranged between said cutters, and escapement mechanism for transmitting motion from the main shaft to the auxiliary shaft.

7. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft journaled in the frame, 'a rotary cutter secured to the shaft, a reciprocating stripping-knife coacting with the cutter and operable from the main shaft, means for rotating the main shaft, and means for reversing the direction of rotation of the said shaft without affecting the stripping-knives.

8. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the'combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft journaled in the frame, a rotary cutter secured to the main shaft, a reciprocating strippingknife coacting with the rotary cutter, an auxiliary shaft disposed above the main shaft and driven by the latter, and a feed-wheel loosely mounted on the auxiliary shaft and disposed above the rotary cutter.

9. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of a maindriving-shaft journaled therein, a rotary cutter secured to the main shaft, an auxiliary'shaft driven by the main shaft and provided with an escapementwheel, a rock-shaft, a reciprocating stripping-knife-mounted on said rock-shaft and coacting with the rotary cutter, and a verge secured to the rock-shaft-and adapted to engage the escapement-wheel for reciprocating the stripping-knife.

10. Inatobacco-strippingmachine, the combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft journaled therein and provided with a fixed ratchet, a master-gear loosely mounted on said shaft, a pawl carried by the gear and adapted to engage the ratchet, a rotary cutter secured to the main shaft, an auxiliary shaft provided with a pinion meshing with the master-gear, an escapement-wheel mounted on the auxiliary wheel and provided with laterally-extending pins, a rock-shaft, a reciprocating stripping-knife secured to said shaft and coacting with the rotary cutter and a verge carried by the rock-shaft and adapted to engage the pins on the escapement-wheel for reciprocating the stripping-knives.

11. In atobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a base provided with an opening, of a supporting-frame, a main drivingshaft journaled in the frame, a pair of spaced cutters secured to the shaft, a pair of stripping-knives coacting with the cutters and operable from the main shaft, and a deflector disposed between the stripping-knives for-deflecting the tobacco-stemsthrough said opening.

12. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of an inclined apron, a main driving-shaft, a pair of spaced rotary cutters secured to the shaft, a pair of stripping-knives coacting with the cutters and operable from the driving-shaft, an auxiliary shaft driven by the main shaft, a feed-wheel loosely mounted on the auxiliary shaft, a deflector arranged between the stripping-knives, and a scraper disposed between the rotary cutters.

13. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the combination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft, a plurality of spaced rotary cutters secured thereto, a rock-shaft operable from the main driving-shaft, a plurality of strippingdtnives secured to the rock-shaft and coacting with the rotary cutters, an inclined apron pivoted to said rock-shaft and provided with a longitudinal opening adapted to receive said stripping-knives, and a deflector disposed between the rotary cutters.

14. In a tobacco-stripping machine, the com bination with a frame, of a main driving-shaft, a pair of spaced rotary cutters secured thereto, a rock-shaft operable from the main driving shaft, a pair of spaced stripping-knives coacting with the rotary cutters and provided with alined openings adapted to receive the rock-shaft, means for dotachabl y securing the stripping-knives 011 the rock-shaft, and an inclined apron pivoted to said rock-shaft and having its forward end bent downwardly over the rotary cutters.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

FRANK MUN SEY.

Witnesses: V

J. F. CHARLES, J. N. J ONES. 

